Eye Sightings

The Consumer Eyes Blog

Category: New York

Brooklyn's foodie scene just keeps growing; what started as a few farm-to-table restaurants and underground dining clubs has grown into an entire ecosystem. No other place is so closely watched by the big tastemakers - which is why we went to this year's Future Food Expo, part of Taste Talks, keen to interview the latest startups.

We recently had a chance to sit down with Jamie Wolfond, founder of the new furniture and product design company Good Thing NY. In the roughly two months since its founding, Good Thing has already drawn the attention of the design world. His philosophy around innovation stresses attention to every aspect of sourcing and manufacturing, from the very outset of the design process.

You may remember that a few months ago, we welcomed IBM's Watson, the artificial intelligence that dominated Jeopardy, to our little corner of NYC. Now, it looks like he's edging into our industry, too – IBM has just sent out samples of Bengali Butternut BBQ Sauce, a condiment created entirely by Watson.

For most of us, our beer drinking habits fall into some pretty well-defined patterns. A pint from the tap at the bar, or maybe a bottle or can from a retail store to drink at home. But lately we've noticed that some establishments are stretching the boundaries of typical drinking occasions, making us reconsider when - and what - we're imbibing.

In the last few years, our neighborhood here in New York City has transformed itself into Silicon Alley, an east coast counterpoint to Silicon Valley in the west. And IBM has just announced that it's betting big on the downtown area, setting up their famous Watson supercomputer just a few blocks south of our offices in a new building on Astor Place - an area that's better known for Cooper Union, tattoo parlors and skate punks than innovation in advanced cognitive computing.

Looking back at 2013, it's easy to see that one of the major food trends was the mashup: a combination of unlikely ingredients, flavors or cultures to create something fresh and unique. This year it gave us the cronut and the ramen burger, but it's a trend that's been with us quite a while - at least since the appearance of the Korean taco trucks, and certainly longer if you consider it part of the fusion trend that dominated the 90s.

October was a busy month for hipsters here in New York. British street artist Banksy released a new artwork in a different part of the city every day; some were traditional graffiti, while others leaned toward sculpture or performance art. Each piece had something to say about New York city, and each immediately became a part of the city as locals flocked to see, photograph, deface, or try to make off with a piece of the artwork.

Here at Consumer Eyes, we love immersing ourselves in the latest trends, and we can take it pretty seriously! We've recently started a Consumer Eyes Bake-Off Challenge, in which our different departments show off their baking prowess – it's a great way to immerse ourselves in baking culture, explore new ingredients and trends, and of course enjoy some delicious treats.

We don’t mean to inundate your inbox, but we can’t help but share with you a bit of fun for us that started with a call from the Today Show asking for our participation in a series that has been airing this week called “Fact or Fiction”. In this gameshow-type segment, the Today anchors, as well as viewers at home, are challenged to watch two outlandish news stories and guess which is real and which is fake.